comments on small business marketing, pr, sales and other random thoughts.

Sales

Failing to plan for an effective sales call could result in
your client saying this to you. Some sales people make the mistake of
assuming that their clients want to hear everything that they want to tell
them. Not true. Smart sales people will ask the customer in advance
what is important to them, using this information to plan their presentation
and sales call.

To use an example, I used to be a sales manager for a fraud investigations
company. I accompanied one of my sales people on a call to a major
insurance company that was looking for a new investigations firm.
"John" as I will call him, started off the call by showing a very lengthy
PowerPoint. He focused on our technology, our brand power, and our size
and coverage. After his 20 minute spiel, the confused customer said “Yes,
I already know that. What I really
wanted to hear about was the background and experience level of your
investigators.” Ironically, our company led the
market in that area, yet we missed the boat to showcase ourselves since
“John” had not done his homework prior to the call.

As a sales person, I naturally get excited every time my phone rings. I get even more excited when the voice on the other end of the line is from a FORTUNE 500 company inquiring about our products, which is what happened to me about two weeks ago. Wow – a giant company (with a giant budget) was calling our small software company!

After further conversation, Company Q (let’s call them) had reviewed a copy of our marketing software and wanted to partner with us to customize the product to fit their corporate climate. Upon hanging up I think I set a new world’s record for traveling the distance between my office and that of our Product Development Manager. “Can we do it? How quickly? What can we charge?” were all questions I excitedly asked. But it was clear by the look on his face that my conversation with Company Q did not have the same effect on him.

After several internal meetings, we finally decided to pass on this “dream” deal, and here’s why: we are a small software company whose focus and success has always come from helping small businesses succeed. We are not a custom development firm; therefore, while we have the content expertise Company Q was looking for, the customization component would have overextended our resources.

While the gain of the deal would have been a nice financial infusion, it would have caused massive company-wide displacement. On the heels of developing several other new products for our existing target market, we realized the smart money was in staying true to our business plan and executing on our current strategy. In the long run, that is where our real gain will be.